Alternative energy

Integrating variable wind and solar power production with the needs of the power grid is a major problem of these two alternative sources of energy; a Minnesota company will test technology to to store wind energy and move it to the electricity grid when needed

Three new wind farms will have a combined output of 215 MW, which is enough to supply renewable energy to 109,000 homes; next year U.K. will overtake Denmark in percentage of national power generated by wind

Australia is more economically vulnerable than any other wealthy nation to the effects of global warming; new report says: “Australia would be a big loser — possibly the biggest loser among developed nations — from unmitigated climate change”

Moth eyes do not reflect light: They have orderly bumps on their corneas, and the the array of bumps creates a situation in which almost no reflection exists, thus keeping the defenseless moth hidden from nocturnal predators; researchers want to increase the efficiency of solar panels by emulating moth eyes, allowing the panels to absorb and utilize — rather than reflect and waste — more of the sun’s light

Scientists say that sunlight falling on only 9 percent of California’s Mojave Desert could power all of the U.S. electricity needs — if the energy could be efficiently harvested; this is a big “if,” since current-generation solar cell technologies are too expensive and inefficient for wide-scale commercial applications; Northwestern University researchers show a way to increase solar cell efficiency

Connecting different renewable energy sources to the national grid may be a costly proposition; new study aims to find community generation schemes which are able to connect to the grid without the need for expensive cable upgrades or digging up roads

Sandia, SES achieve solar-to-grid conversion efficiency rate of 31.25 percent; increasing conversion rate, coupled with the rising price of oil and worries about the environment, make solar power more attractive

U.K. government agency injects £6 million into research aiming to halve the cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells; in the first four years of the project, scientists created platform technologies in crystalline silicon, thin film silicon, thin film cadmium telluride, and thin film copper indium diselenide; now they will narrow down the research